Oleksandr Babich: We played the match really rough

Sunday, April 24, 2016

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Head coach of Chornomorets summed up the outcome of the game vs Shakhtar

- We were very well preparing for this game, willing to please our fans. We told the lads not to be afraid to play football. At times it worked, at times it didn’t, but let's face it: we were counterplaying Shakhtar – the European League semi-finalists. Playing open football against the Pitmen is a suicide. I think that we played the match up to the mark. Yes, we had mistakes, but the whole team played well defensively, moreover, plus there was pretty good counterattacking performance. Yet this tie is a great emotional plus for our young team, and I very much hope that this result will give the players even more confidence.

- After fielding the attacking player Hoblenko, Chornomorets didn’t get any more threatening edge in front. You probably counted on something different?
- Let's make conclusions about transitions from defence to attack not on the basis of the match against Shakhtar! We have strengthened our attacking performance to prevent our striker from allowing Donetsk defenders launch attacking moves. He did cope with this task. I would want to see other teams try to play any more open football against Shakhtar.

- At the end of the match there was mutual roughness. How can you explain it?
- Our team always play very tough. I can’t say that we played it rough. In the situation at the end of the match, they were supposed to give us the ball based on the fair play rule, but Shakhtar players didn’t do that. Isn’t that rude? I think we played the match rough. And our team deserved this point.

- For the closing thirty minutes, the performance of Chornomorets was reminiscent of the heroic defence of Stalingrad. Do you already know how to counteract top clubs?
- Counteracting the top clubs is always interesting, because the team pay football. That’s my first point earned in a game against the giants, and I hope that’s not the last one. Closer to the final whistle, we might clinch a win, but Pyatov’s reflexes were excellent. At the end we wanted to move the game away from our goal and it worked.

- How will you psych up for the remaining league games, where will you find the motivation?
- We will psych them up! We don’t need to do that vs Shakhtar - I said that to a TV channel who came to our base the other day. Before such games, we should on the contrary make the guys relax. I very much hope that we will get it across to the players, enjoying the same attitude to the rest of games.